Daily driver problem for experts
 

Sorry it aint a scoob, its my daily driver ford escort.
Basically when you start the car the idle goes mad ,it shoots past 1000rpm then drops as low as 300ish rpm and sometimes conks out at this point,if it doesnt conk out it takes an age for the idle to settle down.The car drives fine ,its whenever you approach a junction or anywhere else where you need to stop the car that the idle goes nuts again and sometimes conks the car out,the car restarts fine and drives ok,its just a pain in the arse having to restart the car everytime im at a junction/traffic lights etc..
As i said i know its not a scoob but ive got a feeling its something simple and i would be ever so gratefull if somebody could point me in the right direction:thumb:

plugs, leads, rotor arm (if it is old enough to have one).

is it carb or injection?

What year is it?

Earlier non injection models with the CVH engine have a auto chock mechanism that operates via a copper spring that has coolant flowing across it, the springs tend to corrode and it jams on, this can cause the problem you are experiencing.

You cant disable the auto choke without removing it because it has a ratchet mechanism which forces it to come on when you push the throttle then when the engine is warm enough the ratchet mechanism resets and the choke is disabled.